Archive for March, 2015

This was my favorite part of the video. Not so much because of what she’s saying; she’s talking about how she’s back at The Americana looking for costume options for Spore, and how the shooting schedule has been pushed back. And she’s very much caught up in the details.

But she’s walking past that big poster for the last Hobbit movie. And it’s such a cool moment. Because more than a decade ago, growing up in Fayetteville, it was seeing Fellowship for the first time that started her on this journey. And now the Rings franchise is ending, and for a fan it’s sad, but look: There’s a new beginning. The road goes ever on.

Because she’s doing it. Not just acting, but creating. Bringing together people like Taylor, Whitney, Miles, Zack, and Ashley, inspiring them, getting lost in the details, the thousand decisions, pushing past setbacks and doubt and exhaustion, all to take this completely insubstantial thing, this tiny little idea, this dream, and turn it into something real.

And it’s badass. But if you look past the badassery you can still see the little girl from Fayetteville, and the determination that carried her from that moment to this. And I don’t know. I just thought it was cool.

“One of the most prominent Russian artists of his time, Aivazovsky was also popular outside Russia. He held numerous solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. During his almost sixty-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, making him one of the most prolific artists of his time. The vast majority of his works are seascapes, but he often depicted battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture. Most of Aivazovsky’s works are kept in Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian museums as well as private collections.”

For my next three videos, I’ll be taking you through the entire making of Spore, from start to finish. This video covers the whole pre-production process, and on Friday, you’ll get to see what production was like.

I loved this behind-the-scenes video about the making of Spore; maybe even more than the actual film. That probably says something about me and my thing about meta. Or whatever it is that makes reality programming in general as compelling as it is.

“When we came to make Zombies, Run!, I deliberately put a line in the very first mission, when you, Runner Five, are just arriving at Abel Township, the tiny, shivering remnant of humanity left after the zombie apocalypse. I had one of the characters say: “If you can move above a slow shamble, we can use you.” Why? Because I am so sick and tired of the best and nicest exercise-based treats being reserved for people who are already in peak physical shape, and I’m sick of the notion that having fun while exercising is something you have to earn; that, until you look a certain way, moving ought to be boring and unpleasant if not outright painful. Your body is there right now. You did not have to earn a thing. It is a gift. You are a hero every time you step out of your front door to do some exercise.”

Dongfeng has been partially dismasted, and is limping into shore to try to make repairs. No one on board was hurt.

The four remaining lead boats are at or around Cape Horn, with Alvimedica having rounded first and ADOR having set a one-day distance record of 541 nautical miles. Astern, SCA continues to work their way east, being gradually overtaken by worsening weather.

There’s an amazing race happening at the front of the Volvo fleet. At the moment Alvimedica leads, followed by a tight trio of MAPFRE, ADOR, and Brunel about 8 miles back, and then Dongfeng, who have fallen off the pace a bit in the last 12 hours, about 25 miles back. All of them should be rounding Cape Horn tomorrow (Monday, March 30); the VOR media operation has a helicopter and photographers staged to hopefully get aerial photos.

The more compelling story for me, though, is 475 miles back, where SCA has been limping along (if you can call it that when a boat is surfing at 20 knots) ever since they blew out their medium-air downwind sail (the Fractional Code Zero, or “FR0″) back on March 24.

There hasn’t been much video from SCA during the last few days. What I know is mostly based on the tracker, and on updates to the blog on the team website. The top gif above shows an animation of the last six days in the tracker, in which you can see SCA falling steadily back.

They’ve been sailing conservatively rather than pushing, doing relatively few maneuvers and using their smaller sails (mostly the J1) rather than their remaining large downwind sails (the A3 gennaker and Masthead Code Zero). Basically, they’ve shifted from racing to sailing in survival mode, just concentrating on reaching Cape Horn safely.

There are hints in the blog of disagreements; it sounds like Libby, at least, is disappointed about the decision to ease off the throttle. But ultimately it has to be Sam’s responsibility to make that kind of call. From the sound of it, she’s decided they need to save their energy for the difficult rounding ahead, rather than trying to match the rapid-fire gybes (and exhausting shifting of the stack) that the boats ahead have been using to keep racing.

The lead boats will probably round Cape Horn in relatively light wind. Because they’ve fallen a day behind, though, SCA is likely to experience a much rougher rounding, with steady winds into the high 30s, and possible gusts to 50 knots or more. That, combined with the extreme sea state that typically forms off Cape Horn, means they’ll probably be sailing in the worst conditions anyone has ever experienced in a Volvo 65.

The four wind projections above show the current wind, and then winds for 12, 24, and 36 hours from now, with SCA’s position advanced to show where they’re likely to be at those points. The dot toward the right of each image is Cape Horn.

They’re a tough crew, and they have a strong boat. My thoughts are going to be with them over the next few days.